Review

The Essential Histories series is a fairly recent edition to the Osprey line, and is different than their other books. Rather than focusing on the specifics, as do the other series, the Essential Histories give a general overview of the war in question. I found that "A World in Flames" is well written, giving a concise history of what happened on the larger scale in each theater during World War II.

Originally Osprey released their coverage of World War II as six separate volumes, but they brought them together into this single work. The book is divided into six parts, each one previously being a separate volume. It is divided as follows; Part I Europe 1939-1943, Part II The war at sea, Part III, The Mediterranean 1940-45, Part IV The Pacific, Part V The Eastern Front 1941-45, Part VI Northwest Europe 1944-45. The six parts are further broken down into a few different "chapters".

Each section covers the background to war, the warring sides, outbreak, the actual fighting, portrait of a soldier, portrait of a civilian, and how the period ended. The portraits are real treats, giving one an idea of how life was like, during the fighting from both a military and non-military perspective. Good photographs, and great maps accompany the text. I always like it when books have good maps as it helps form a better mental picture of the situation. The book is also a great value, costing what two of the individual books cost. Highly recommended.